Dishwashing machine



Sept. 17, 1963 v. CANE DISK-{WASHING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 15, 1951 INVENTOR. '0 hpM flMQ/4WM I Aha 5M Sept. 17, 1963 Filed Aug. 15, 1961 V. CANE DISHWASHING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,163,940 DHSHWASHING MACHINE Virginie: ane, Dott. Franco Cicogna, 14/ A Via Visconti di Modr'one, Miian, Italy Filed Aug. 15, I961, er. No. 131,588 Claims priority, application Italy Aug. 27, 1960 7 Claims. (Cl. 134-140) The present invention relates in general to dishwashers having an inner housing constituting a dish chamber or tub having an upper opening enclosed by an outer housing or cabinet having an upper door, through which the dishwasher may be loaded with dishes to be washed, rinsed and dried, rack means for supporting said dishes in said tub and water distributing means in said tub for distributing water throughout the tub to wash and rinse dishes therein which includes a rotary water impeller.

More particularly, the present invention relates to improvemcnts in dishwashers of the above character which render them more efficient and effective for their purpose.

One object of this invention is to provide a dishwasher having an annular rack for supporting the dishes to be washed in said tub, said annular rack being arranged for rotation about a vertical axis in said tub, a rotary Water impeller co-ax-ial to said annular rack in said tub, and motor driven means for simultaneously rotating both said annular rack and said water impeller about said ertical axis in said tub.

Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved dishwasher as above, including an electric motor and drive means connecting said motor both to said annular rack and to said water impeller in said tub, said drive means including gear means adapted to drive said dishes supporting annular rack to a relatively low rotational speed and in a direction opposite to the direction at which the said water impeller is rotated-whereby the said dishes are subject to a washing water flow impacting on said dishes at a speed which is a function of the sum of the speeds of said rack and of the said impeiler, respectively.

A further object of this invention is to provide, in a new dishwasher of the above character, a drive assembly including a vertically arranged electric motor having a tubular motor shaft having an upper end portion upwardly extended in said tub and connected to said water impeller, and a lower end portion, an inner shaft rotatably into and co-axial with said tubular shaft, and having an upper end portion upwardly extended above said tubular shaft and adapted to support said annular rack, and a lower end portion, and gear means drivingly connecting the said lower end of said motor tubular shaft to the said lower end of said inner shaft for rotating the latter shaft and therefore the said annular rack at a rotational speed smaller than the speed of said motor and in direction opposite thereto.

A still other object of this invention is to provide, in an improved dishwasher as above, an upwardly open inner housing or tub including a substantially cylindrical upper portion and a substantially frusto-conical lower portion, a drive assembly supported beneath and co-axially with said tub and including a water-tight housing enclosing the said motor and the said gear means, said assembly housing being further provided with a co-axial and upwardly extended tubular portion at its upper Wall, the said motor tubular shaft and the said gear driven inner shaft being arranged into and rotatably supported by said tubular portion and extended above the upper end thereof for drive connection with said water impeller and respectively with said annular rack in said tub lower portion and respectively in said tub upper portion.

The foregoing objects, advantages, features and results of the present invention, together with further various objects, advantages and results thereof which will be apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains, will be readily evident as this description proceeds, and the features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention will be in particular set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its mode of operation, will be best understood by the following detailed description of an exemplary form of embodiment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, forming an essential component of this disclosure, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is partly a front elevational view and partly a vertical sectional view of a dishwasher produced according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating in enlarged scale a detail of the construction of the edge portion of the upper door and of the adjacent portions of the inner and outer housings of the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of the upper portion of the dishwasher cabinet, shown in the direction indicated by arrow 3 in FIG. 1;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary view illustrating, partly in section and partly in side elevation, the arrangement of the timer controlled door opening device;

FIGURE 5 is a vertical sectional view of the drive assembly and of the water impeller driven thereby; and

FIGURE 6 is a vertical sectional view illustrating, in enlarged scale, a friotionally operating device for drivingly connecting the inner shaft to the dishes supporting annular rack.

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts and elements throughout the several figures, and wherein the minor structural details and several devices and components have been omitted, as appertaining to current knowledge of the art:

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 4, the top loading dishwasher of the invention includes an outer housing or cabinet generally indicated at It having an upper wall forming door 11 hingedly connected at 12 (FIG. 3) to the upper edge portion of the cabinet back or rear wall. Such door 1-1 may be provided with handle means, as indicated at 13 in FIG. 3, for manually operating same.

Adjacently to a rear corner of said cabinet 10, a timer controlled device, as generally indicated at I4 in FIG. 4, is supported in the said cabinet below its said upper door 11, such device including a vertical upwardly extended and movable pusher rod 15 adapted for upwardly urging said door, as described hereinbclow, for opening same, upon timer controlled energization, in the direction indicated at A in FIG. 3.

A tub forming inner housing is suitably supported and enclosed in said cabinet lit. Such tub is provided with a large upper opening adjacent to the passageway formed at the top of said cabinet upon opening of the said door 11 and includes an upper substantially cylindrical portion 17 (FIG. 1) and a lower substantially frusto-conical portion 18. The rotary water impeller, generally indicated at 19, is located in the said lower portion 13 and rotatably supported in the axis thereof, beneath an annular rack 20 which is supported and rotated about the same vertical axis in the upper portion 17 of the tub.

The said annular rack 21' is preferably supported by and driving-1y connected to, for rotation, the top portion 21 of an upper component 22 of the rotary assembly including an inner vertical shaft, and whose construction and operation will be detailedly described below. Preferably, the said annular rack 26 is detachably connected to said component '22, for easy removal of said rack oif the tub, namely for cleaning purposes. Further preferably, the apparatus will be provided with several annular racks which may be readily interchangeably applied and rotatably connected to said component 22 for best adaptation of the dishwasher to differing condition of servicing, namely for processing regular dishes and respectively cups and glasses, cooking pots and pans and other ware, requiring differing arrangement on the rack. Such differingly constructed rack will be not further described and illustrated as appertaining to current art.

FIG. 2 illustrates a preferred construction of the mating edge portions of the door 11 and of the upper edge of cabinet 1%, wherein the passageway for loading and unloading the dishwasher is formed, such construction including features adapted to prevent water sprays to escape from such passageway, about the door 11, as the water impeller 19 powerfully acts on the water in the lower portion 18 of the tub, upwardly and outwardly projecting a continuous water flow which effectively impacts on the dishes or other ware located into and supported by said annular rack 2t Such PEG. 2 illustrates in enlarged scale the portion defined by contour 2 in FIG. 1.

According to said preferred construction, the upper portion of tub 17 is provided with an inwardly projecting rib 23 forming a spray deflector cooperating with a downwardly projecting annular extension 25 of the lower face 25 of the door, the said rib 23 and extension 25 being arranged to intercept the sprays directed towards the upper edge of the said passageway. Suitable gasket means, eg a rubber made annular gasket (not shown) may complete the spray interception, such gasket being conventionally constructed and secured below the door or on the upper face of cabinet.

The said tub l7, 15' is integrally constructed with a tub subassembly arranged into the said cabinet and supported by a plurality of braces 26 (FIG. 1) abutting on resilient supporting blocks 27 which are at their turn connected to and supported by the bottom framing 28 of the cabinets structure. cluding the motor, the gearing and further means which will be described below, includes a motor housing 29 which is co-axially located below and suspended to the center of thesaid lower portion 18 of the tub.

Such driving subassembly of the apparatus is particularly illustrated in FIG. 5. Inside the said housing 29 an electric motor including a stator 3t} and a rotor 31 is co-axially and vertically arranged. The said rotor 3-1 is secured to a tubular shaft 32 having an upper portion 33 connected to a bell-shaped member '34 freely rotatable about an upwardly directed extension 35 of the upper wall 36 of said housing 29. By means of a cup member 37 the said rotary impeller 19 is secured to said member 34 and therefore drivingly connected to said tubular shaft .32 of motor. 7

Co-axially to and inside the said tubular shaft 32 of motor an inner shaft 38 is rotatably supported. Such inner shaft 38 extends either upwardly above the said cup member 37, where it is drivingly connected to said annular rack supporting upper component 22, and downwardly below the lower end of said tubular shaft 32, where it is secured to a planetary movable gear 39; which is located above and co-axially to a stationary planetary gear ill, slightly greater than said gear 39.

Such stationary planetary gear is preferably secured, by means of bolts, for example, to the bottom wall 41 of the said housing 29. The lower end portion of tubular shaft 32 has radial extensions 42 and 43 integrally formed therewith. Extension 4 2 carries a vertical short shaft 44 about which a pair of co-axial satellite gears 45 and 46 are rotatably supported in meshing relationship with said movable planetary gear 3 9 and respectively with said stationary planetary gear 40. A ballast body 47 is secured to the opposite radial extension 43 of said. tubular shaft 32 for balancing same during its fast rotation.

. Operation of the motor 36, 31 drives the tubular shaft 7 32 and the combination of gears 39, 40, 45 and 46 causes said tubular shaft to drive the inner shaft 38 at a greatly The driving sub-assembly in- 7 4 smaller speed and in opposite direction than the said tubular shaft 32. As a consequence thereof, the said dishes supporting annular rack 20 (FIG. 1), as being supported and driven by component 22 i.e. by said inner shaft 38, is caused to counter-rotate at small speed in respect to the said water impeller 19, which is connected to said tubular shaft 32 and thereby caused to fastly rotate together with the rotor 31 of the motor included in the said housing 29.

The driving connection of annular rack 20 to the said inner shaft 38 is preferably made by means of frictionally engaged means to prevent undesired stresses in the various components, owing to the substantial mass and rotary momentum of the dishes loaded annular rack. Such means maybe constructed as shown in FIG. 6. The said component 22 is provided with a diametral groove 21 at its upper face for rotary and driving engagement with the annular rack 20, (-FIG. 1) and it is shaped'as an inverted cup. Such component 22 is rotatably supported by means of a bearing ball 48, for example, on the upper end portion of thesai-d inner shaft 38. One end portion 50 of a coil spring 511 is secured to said component 22 and the other end portion 52 of same spring is secured to an upper annular member 53 which frictionally abuts on a lower annular member 54 secured to said inner shaft 38, by means of a cross pin 55, for example.

The said spring 51 is so wound that when the said shaft 38 is driven by the mechanism illustrated in FIG. 5, such spring tends to unwind itself increasing the pressure between members 53 and 54, thereby ensuring the frictional engagement therebetween and themotion of annular rack connected to said component 22 and of the dishes carried by said rack. Conversely, as the said shaft 38 stops, the said pressure decreases and the said loaded rack is allowed to slowly stop upon its rotary momentum,

without prejudicing the components of the driving mechanism.

It is to be evident that the present invention includes various advantageous features, and it will be understood too that each of the new features described and any combination thereof may also find useful application in other types of dishwashers differing from the one described.

Without further analysis the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of this invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapted it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended the spirit and meaning of equivalents of the invention, as defined in and by (the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention and the mode of making use thereof, what is claimed as new and desired to have protected by Letters Patent is:

1. In a dishwasher arrangement including dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

motor means having a rotor portion;

a substantially tubular first shaft affixed to the rotor portion of said motor means for rotation therewith;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft; gear means affixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in 'a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a notary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably affixing said dish sup porting means to said second shaft; and

means for affixing said water impeller means to said first shaft. 7

2. In a dishwasher arrangement including dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

motor means having a rotor portion;

a substantially tubular first shaft affixed to the rotor portion of said motor means for rotation therewith;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft;

gear means afiixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably aifixing said dish supporting means to said second shaft, said coupling means including means for providing friction coupling between said dish supporting means and said second shaft; and

means for aflixing said water impeller means to said first shaft.

In a dishwasher arrangement including a cabinet, an upper door afiixed to said cabinet, a tub positioned inside said cabinet and opening beneath said door, said tub having an upper portion, a lower portion and a bottom portion, dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

an electric motor having a rotor portion;

means supporting said motor in said cabinet beneath said tub;

a substantially tubular first shaft affixed to the rotor portion of said motor for rotation therewith, said first shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through the bottom portion thereof;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft, said second shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through said first shaft;

gear means afiixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably affixing said dish supporting means to the upper portion of said second shaft in said tub; and

means for aflixing said water impeller means to the upper portion of said first shaft in said tub.

4. In a dishwasher arrangement including a cabinet, an upper door affixed to said cabinet, a tub positioned inside said cabinet and opening beneath said door, said tub having an upper portion, a lower portion and a bottom portion, dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

an electric motor having a rotor portion;

means supporting 'said motor in said cabinet beneath said tub;

a substantially tubular first shaft afiixed to the rotor portion of said motor for rotation therewith, said first shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through the bottom portion thereof;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft, said second shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through said first shaft;

gear means aifixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft, said gear means comprising a rotary planetary gear affixed to the lower portion of said second shaft, a stationary planetary gear supported coaxially with said rotary planetary gear beneath the lower portion of said second shaft, said stationary planetary gear having more teeth than said rotary planetary gear, and satellite gears idly supported by said first shaft at the lower portion thereof for rotation about and in meshing relation with said rotary and stationary planetary gears;

coupling means for removably aifixing said dish sup- 6 porting means to the upper portion of said second shaft in said tub; and

means for affixing said water impeller means to the upper portion of said first shaft in said tub.

5. In a dishwasher arrangement including a cabinet, an upper door affixed to said cabinet, a tub positioned inside said cabinet and opening beneath said door, said tub having an upper portion, a lower portion and a bottom portion, dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

an electric motor having a rotor portion;

means supporting said motor in said cabinet beneath said tub;

a substantially tubular first shaft afiixed to the rotor portion of said motor for rotation therewith, said first shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through the bottom portion thereof;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft, said second shaft extending substantially vertically into said tub through said first shaft;

gear means affixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably affixing said dish supporting means to the upper portion of said second shaft in said tub, said coupling means including frictionally engaged driving members supported respectively by said dish supporting means and said second shaft and spring means urging said frictionally engaged driving members into frictional engagement during driving rotation of said second shaft; and

means for afiixing said water impeller means to the upper portion of said first shaft in said tub.

6. In a dishwasher arrangement including dish supporting means and water impeller means, in combination,

motor means having a rotor portion;

a substantially tubular first shaft affixed to the rotor portion of said motor means for rotation therewith;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft;

gear means affixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably aifixing said dish supporting means to said second shaft, said coupling means comprising a support component adapted to support said dish supporting means and frictional coupling means carried by said support component and said second shaft for frictionally engaging said support component and said second shaft; and

means for aifixing said water impeller means to said first shaft.

7. In a dishwasher arrangement including dish sup porting means and water impeller means, in combination,

motor means having a rotor portion;

a substantially tubular first shaft affixed to the rotor portion of said motor means for rotation therewith;

a second shaft coaxially mounted for rotation within said first shaft;

gear means aflixed to said first and second shafts and coupled to each other in a manner whereby said first shaft drives said second shaft at a rotary speed substantially less than that of said first shaft and in a rotary direction opposite to that of said first shaft;

coupling means for removably affixing said dish supporting means to said second shaft, said coupling means comprising a support component adapted to support said dish supporting means, said component being mounted on one end of said second shaft for relative rotation therewith, an annular member coaxial 'with and slidable with respect to said second shaft, frictionally engaging surfaces carried by said annular member and said second shaft for frictionally engaging said annular member and said second shaft, and spring means affixed to said support com,- ponent and to said annular member so that said spring is unwound when said second shaft is driven by said first shaft and exerts an increased pressure between the frictional'ly engaging surfaces of said annular member and said second shaft and said spring is wound when said second shaft is undriven and exerts a decreased pressure between the friction ally engaging surf-aces and means for afiixing said water inipeller means to said first shaft.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A DISHWASHER ARRANGEMENT INCLUDING DISH SUPPORTING MEANS AND WATER IMPELLER MEANS, IN COMBINATION, MOTOR MEANS HAVING A ROTOR PORTION; A SUBSTANTIALLY TUBULAR FIRST SHAFT AFFIXED TO THE ROTOR PORTION OF SAID MOTOR MEANS FOR ROTATION THEREWITH; A SECOND SHAFT COAXIALLY MOUNTED FOR ROTATION WITHIN SAID FIRST SHAFT; GEAR MEANS AFFIXED TO SAID FIRST AND SECOND SHAFTS AND COUPLED TO EACH OTHER IN A MANNER WHEREBY SAID FIRST SHAFT DRIVES SAID SECOND SHAFT AT A ROTARY SPEED 